The US is disappointed at President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) announcement yesterday that he is to today visit Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said, calling it an “unhelpful” move.
“We are disappointed that President Ma Ying-jeou plans to travel to Taiping Island. Such an action is extremely unhelpful and does not contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea. The US urges Taiwan and all claimants to lower tensions, rather than taking actions that could raise them,” AIT spokeswoman Sonia Urbom said in an e-mail to reporters.
A reciprocal halt among all claimants to further land reclamation, construction of new facilities and militarization of outposts would help to lower tensions and create space for peaceful resolution of disputes, Urbom added.
Photo: Luo Tien-pin, Taipei Times
Vietnam’s representative to Taiwan, Tran Duy Hai, also protested against Ma’s decision in the afternoon, as Hanoi also claims sovereignty over Itu Aba Island.
Tran told reporters that he strongly opposed Ma’s planned visit and that “his actions have violated the claim of the Vietnamese government, and I will therefore express our strong protest to relevant government institutions in Taiwan.”
As tensions are already high in the South China Sea, Tran urged Ma to immediately halt the plan.
Another claimant to territory in the South China Sea, China — which considers Taiwan its sovereign territory — had a different reaction.
Asked to comment on Ma’s planned visit, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated that China and Taiwan had a common duty to protect Chinese sovereignty in the waterway.
“Safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as safeguarding the overall interests of the Chinese nation is the common responsibility and obligation of compatriots across the [Taiwan] Strait,” office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told reporters in Beijing.
While the Philippines also claims sovereignty over Itu Aba Island, it had yet to make any response to Ma’s planned visit as of press time yesterday.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS